the santoro life

We've had kind of a lazy week so far. It's been very rainy and chilly with spots of sunshine in between so we take advantage of the sunshine when we can. We had three playdates this week - one with a friend of a friend from San Diego, one with a neighborhood family, and another with Amanda and April (the family Noah met through his office). It's been great for the kids to interact with kids who speak English since most of the Dutch kids don't. Our street is full of kids but the young Dutch kids don't speak English so it's tough to do more than ride bikes and scooters together.  Finn vacuuming for me, earning his Euros.  The flowers here really are amazing. As well as the chocolate and cheap wine. Which I'm drinking a lot of, being home with three kids all day. I actually really am loving being with them so much. I didn't realize how much I was missing out on.   We explored the other end of the island this week and came across this great wa...

Amsterdam is an awesome city, but dang it rains a lot! Early last week, we booked last minute flights to Portugal for Wednesday - Saturday. The weather was perfect, Noah was able to work from there, we got in a ton of beach time and it was great to take our first European vacation. What was supposed to be a quick 3-hour flight turned into an all day affair getting there. Our flight was very delayed and then I screwed up on getting us to the house but we eventually made it and the kids were once again tough little travelers. Emmett slept the entire flight there and Soph and Finn watched a movie. We landed early evening, grabbed some dinner in downtown Faro and then jumped on a bus to Praia de Faro - Faro Beach-which was about 10 minutes away. The beach was a beautiful stretch of an island with one road right down the middle. There were lots of tourists, snack bars, restaurants and surf rental places. We went to the beach twice each day. Our house was across the street from a great resta...

Molly and Scott are here woot woot! We have had a busy few days of sightseeing, hopping on and off trams and trains, eating and drinking, and walking and more walking. I am totally exhausted. It was great to spend Father's Day with our whole family and my dad today - I don't remember the last time we got to spend it together! We have been all over Amsterdam and today we ventured to The Hague, a city about an hour train ride from here. On Saturday we took a ferry to the Noord area of Amsterdam, just north of the city about a 3 minute ferry ride - this is a picture of Emmett and my dad. Emmett walks absolutely everywhere. I swear the kid does not get tired! My cute mama at dinner at Lucca Due in Jordaan. I believe Soph Dawg took this photo.  I Amsterdam sign at the Museumplein. I lost Finn and Sophia for about 10 seconds here and about lost my mind. Found 'em! Another shot from Museumplein - the area where Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh, and a bunch of other stuff c...

Yesterday was a long and lazy day at home, so today we were determined to get out and have some fun. Noah left for work and we packed up to head to the NEMO Science Museum again. We barely got to scratch the surface when we were there Sunday. We got on tram 26 and headed to Centraal Station, then walked about 10 minutes to the museum. Easily the best science center I've ever been to - 5 floors of exhibits and a rooftop restaurant with good/fresh food. After a few hours Emmett was more than ready for a nap so we started our trip home. It was dumping rain - we were actually prepared with umbrellas and rain coats but we got SOAKED. We made a pitstop at Starbucks for some snacks and a latte - Finn actually said to the barista, "my mom always has to get a nonfat latte". It rained all afternoon, hailed even, but the sun came out eventually. Noah got home from work and we all headed to Il Sogno - a pizza and gelato place in the hood. A huge wheel that spins super slow - kid...

We had a fantastic first weekend in Amsterdam! Transitioning from full-time working mom to full-time stay at home mom was a big change over the past week. So I was really excited to spend the whole weekend together as a family and explore lots of new stuff. Saturday morning we took the tram to Centraal Station, Amsterdam's main train stop in the heart of the city, which is about 5 stops from our rental. I'd taken the tram around the island but wanted to wait for Noah before taking the kids to Centraal. It's chaos with trams, buses, bikes and people absolutely everywhere. Everyone survived and I think Finn said "this is so cool" about 300 times. We walked to the Saturday market in Jordaan, bought produce, cheese, bread, a wooden shoe keychain for Finn and a bead bracelet for Soph (per usual E got nothing). Noah has met several expats at his office space and one of the families invited us over for a picnic on Sat afternoon. They had a 4 year old girl and it was grea...